Splashdown: Rides Gone Wild

Emerging as part of an elite group of developers able to handle the burly programming required by PlayStation 2 in 2001 and 2002, Rainbow Studios flaunted its ability to create games for numerous publishers, from LucasArts to Activision and Infogrames. Its games all revolved around racing and stunts of some kind, including Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2, Splashdown and Star Wars Racer Revenge.

Acquired by the cash-rich THQ in 2002, however, Rainbow has been quiet up until now. With Splashdown: Rides Gone Wild, it has developed its first full-blown THQ game.

An unofficial sequel to the Infogrames published Splashdown, Rides Gone Wild offers gamers a rich, technically savvy watercraft racing game, replete with stunts, secret courses, and the finely tuned sim-arcade balance inherent to all Rainbow games. In other words, the game is designed more or less as a simulation and is then toned down, rounded out, tuned and balanced into an relatively easy-to-pick up racing game for nearly everybody.

Rides Gone Wild is probably the most accessible of all Rainbow's games, often feeling like ATV Off-road Fury 1 & 2 on water, and without a doubt challenging -- meaning it requires patience to learn the trick system, memorize the courses and, overall, a firm sense of discipline.

But after a multitude of poor-playing watercraft and Jetski games, many gamers have become shy with anything including "jetski" or "watercraft" in it. Do gamers really want another extreme-sport watercraft racer? And, if a game of this nature cannot out-perform the still-impressive Nintendo 64 Wave Race 64, what's the point? Perhaps that's looking too far back or maybe it's asking too much, but for those of us who've played all of these games, both good and bad, it's a concern.

Gameplay Which means Rides Gone Wild is probably the next best thing to Nintendo's classic, at least in this gamer's mind. On the bright side, Rides Gone Wild plays nearly identical to the original Splashdown -- generally considered a good thing. Every little thing that made the first title excellent is intact: Superb water physics, a sense of immediate, finesse handling, a wide variety of courses and, in them, an impressive set of secret pathways.

What Rainbow has done to improve and expand in the Splashdown universe is multi-fold. The game has gone through what looks like, at first glance, a THQ conversation. My first impression was "It's Kidsville." The courses have undergone a massive transformation into rollercoaster-style rides, and, more to the point, they resemble distinct Disneyland rides. If you have ridden the Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, the Indiana Jones Adventure or anything else in the park, you will undoubtedly recognize these. So, do you want to ride through these style courses on a watercraft?

Insider Splashdown: RGW Want to learn the nitty-gritty about this racer? IGN Insiders have access to our detailed three part write-up, which includes side-by-side comparison movies with the original, a breakdown of level mechanics, widescreen media, and more!